In Defense of Land Mines

Obama overrules the U.S. military on Korean security.

Updated June 19, 2014 10:35 p.m. ET

As disorder spreads from Ukraine to the Middle East and the Western Pacific, U.S. President Barack Obama is about to tempt fate on one of the world's most dangerous front lines. According to our sources, he plans next week to sign the international treaty banning land mines, an act of arms-control theater that will weaken longstanding U.S. defenses against the erratic and nuclear-armed regime of North Korea.

The Ottawa Treaty of 1997 renounces use of anti-personnel land mines on the grounds that they kill and maim...